Promotional Information

Encourages readers to think critically about the role of corporations in everyday life, health, and culture

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Key Events Timeline for Nocora's Environmental Health List of Acronyms A Note on Pseudonyms Introduction: Understanding PoliticalEcologies of Risk in Puerto Rico Little by Little 1 The Dose Makes the Poison: How Making Drugs Harms Environments and People Progress 2 In the Beginning Was the Corporation: Progress, Pollution, and the Public Trust Playing Politics 3 The Rituals and Consequences of Community Politics and Dissent "Fresh Minds" on Parade 4 Environmental Justice Is Not Always Just Good Neighbors (A Conversation) 5 The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Problem of "Stakeholders" "Salud te recomienda" 6 Radical Redistributions of Knowledge: A Holistic View of Environmental Health Epilogue Appendix Notes Bibliography Index About the Author

About the Author

Alexa S. Dietrich is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Wagner College.

Reviews

"This fascinating and most timely critical medical anthropology study successfully binds two still emergent areas of contemporary anthropological research in the global world: the nature and significant impact of multinational pharmaceutical manufacturers on human social life everywhere, and the contribution of corporations to the fast-paced degradation of our life support system, planet Earth... Focusing on a pharmaceutically-impacted town on the colonized island of Puerto Rico, Dietrich ably demonstrates the value of ethnography carried out in small places in framing the large issues facing humanity." Merrill Singer, University of Connecticut "Offers a compelling and thought-provoking account of the politics of recognition in Nocereos, Puerto Rico, a municipality where the stench of pollution pervades the air, soil, and water. In Nocereos, one lives beneath the shadow of one's corporate 'neighbors,' an imposing complex of pharmaceutical companies that turns a blind eye to the insidious effects of toxic by-products while boasting of their lucrative trade in health elsewhere. Set against the invisibility of chronic suffering, local grassroots activists must always fight to be seen and heard. Here one encounters a lively cast of people who inhabit an environment both tranquil and contaminated. This is a smart and masterful portrayal of the realities of activism and the power of corporate public relations strategies, a convincing ethnography that integrates medical anthropology and political ecology in expert fashion. Every employee of Big Pharma should be required to read this book." Lesley A. Sharp, Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Anthropology, Barnard College